Project Overview

Our clients, Dr. Seungpyo Hong and Dr. Michael Poellmann, desire to improve their liquid biopsy flow chamber device. The device will be used to screen blood samples from cancer patients to determine if they are at risk of the cancer spreading to other areas of the body in a process known as metastasis. When a tumor is metastasized, cancerous cells are released into the bloodstream and become CTCs, or circulating tumor cells. These can adhere to the endothelial lining of blood vessels and migrate through to other tissues, creating secondary tumors. The flow channel contains a surface covered in proteins E-selectin and anti-EpCAM, which induce cell rolling and CTC capture, respectively. After washing away any extraneous cells, such as leukocytes, the captured CTCs can be fixed, stained, and quantified. In order to maximize the reliability of this biopsy, the efficiency of CTC capture must be optimized to report an accurate number of tumor cells. This can be done through modifications to the geometry of the flow chamber itself to increase exposure of cells to the biomarker surface and elevate the capture rate, which is currently around ninety percent. Currently, the team is focused on developing a flow channel design to test with fluid dynamic simulation software. This will be followed by fabrication of a scaled-up model to depict expected flow through the device. Finally, a to-scale device will be fabricated and tested using fluorescent beads to detect any undesirable flow conditions.

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Contact Information

Team Members

• Ryan Opansky - Team Leader
• Andrew Durette - Communicator
• Edwin Neumann - BSAC
• Patrick Kasl - BWIG
• Emily Russell - BPAG

Advisor and Client

• Prof. Paul Campagnola - Advisor
• Prof. Seungpyo Hong - Client